According to the United Nations, 852 million people in the world face starvation. That is close to 1 of every 8 people.

* * * The body mass index (BMI) of a an individual measures the relative percentage of fat and muscle in the body by dividing weight in kilograms by height in meters squared; meaning that since I weigh 62 kilograms and am 1.72 meters tall I have a BMI of 21.0. Normal BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9, overweight is between 25 and 29.9, and Obese is 30 or greater. America leads the world in obesity with 30.6 percent of the population having a body mass index of 30 and over. That means that over 3 of every 10 Americans is clinically obese. In contrast, only 2.6 percent of China’s population is obese.

The average American has a BMI of 29.8 while the average Chinese has a BMI of 21.1. The average adult height of a American is 1.694 meters, which means that the average weight is 85.4 kilograms (188.3 pounds). The average adult height of Chinese is 1.641 meters, which means that the average weight is 56.8 kilograms (125.2 pounds). US America’s adult population numbers approximately 222,000,000. China’s adult population numbers approximately 951,000,000. That means that the America’s cumulative adult population weighs 19 billion kilograms (42 billion pounds) while China’s cumulative adult population weighs 54 billion kilograms (119 billion pounds).

If Chinese adults weighed as much as American adults, it would add 27 billion kilograms (60 billion pounds) to China’s total human body mass. That is greater than the entire weight of the American adult population by 142 percent. If we consider fat and water to be of the same density where 1 kilogram of fat equals 1 liter, then that would mean 27 billion kilograms (60 billion pounds) of fat could fill the coliseum in Rome 1,000 times.

Vice versa, if Americans had a body mass index of 21.1, which would be considered healthy, then American adults would weigh approximately 60.5 kilograms (133 pounds). That would eliminate over 5.5 billion kilograms (12 billion pounds) of human fat from the planet’s surface. This year, Sudan will be short 720 million kilograms of food for its starving people. Therefore, America’s excess fat alone could fix Sudan’s food shortage for over 7.6 years.

America’s population with diabetes is 19.5 million, 6.5 percent of the population. China’s population with diabetes has grown to over 50 million, 3.8 percent of the population. That number is expected to grow to 100 million by 2025. In the past 10 years, China’s childhood obesity rate has doubled. Over 8.1 percent of urban children are obese while only 3.1 percent of rural children are obese. This is still far behind America’s childhood obesity rate of 15 percent.

A study by a Cornell University nutritional biochemist named T. Colin Campbell revealed that US Americans consume 10 times more animal protein and 15 grams a day less fiber than the average Chinese. In addition, whereas Chinese only get about 15 percent of their calories from dietary fat, Americans get close to 40 percent. Campbell concludes that if Americans could reduce their calories from fat to 15 percent, they could reduce their risk of developing degenerative diseases like diabetes and cancer before the age of 65 by 80 to 90 percent.

* * * There are now over 790 McDonald’s outlets and 1,200 Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets in China. In 2005, McDonald’s opened its first drive though in China. McDonald’s plans to open 300 new outlets in the country over the next 3 years, more than half of which will have a drive-thru.